Hi, i have a suuuuper specific question that could probably be answered w an academic paper, so I'm really more asking for your opinion.
In western historical fashion, around the beginning of the 19th c. Mens clothing became more homogeneous and less elaborate. Less ornaments, narrower colour range, less patterned fabrics etc.
My question is, did something similar ever happen w men's Hanfu? Or Chinese men's clothing in general (bc if this happened i'm guessing it happened during the qing dynasty)?
Was mens' Hanfu (outside of court) historically as/more elaborate than womens', or did confucian(or other) ideals temper fashion?
If, in your opinion, something similar happened in chinese historical fashion, when did it happen? Did it happen independently or (partially) because of western influence?
Is modern chinese men's fashion is similarly bland as western men's fashion, and did this blandness (if it's there) predate western influence or not?
I'm gonna stop here bc I could keep going, hope this isn't too incoherent thxxxx
This is going to be a long post with a lot of history thrown in xDD
Hanfu (men's and women's) had an abrupt end when the Qing Dynasty came into power (officially in 1644). Because the Qing Dynasty was ruled by the Manchu ethnicity, and they forced people to change to their style of clothing (and hair) at the risk of beheading for the entire family (as in, if one person in the family refused to change their clothing, the whole family would be k*lled), that caused a drastic change to the clothing of the general population.
But Qing Dynasty clothing wasn't any less elaborate for the wealthy. For anyone who's watched Qing Dynasty TV dramas, the styles were still very colourful, intricate, and beautiful in their own way. Of course, this depended on how much money you had to spend on clothing, and like Hanfu in previous dynasties, your rank in court (if you were a court advisor) determined certain fabrics/colours/patterns you could wear.
(Portrait of Concubine Huixian, currently kept at the Forbidden City Museum)
In the 19th century the Qing Dynasty really took a nose-dive. Western powers started to put pressure on the country to open its borders, and for China, a country that for its entire history, had dominated this region, they laughed it off initially. In 1840 the First Opium War erupted between the Qing Dynasty and Britain, which ended with China's defeat and the cession of Hong Kong (along with lots of other bs conditions). And then it was one loss after another, one invasion after another, militarily China was much, much weaker than the industrialized western powers (this was the start of what China considers the "Century of Humiliation"). Here's a list of all the wars and battles that took place during those years, and remember all of these took place either on Chinese soil or on its borders, not in some country halfway across the world, so it would have caused destruction to China's own infrastructure, civilian housing, cultural relics, etc., not to mention loss of civilian life in "collateral damage".
（Um...WWII Sino-Japan war list goes on for a while...I'll just put the wiki link here and anyone interested can go and have a look)
Clothing-wise, during this period, for the civilian population the country was in the sh*tter so you can imagine they weren't wearing anything too elaborate. For the Qing Court, they still tried to maintain elegance (by the end of the Dynasty the Qing court was also very corrupt, which happens at the end of pretty much every Dynasty. As they say, history is just a cycle).
Towards the end of the Qing Dynasty, and into the Republic of China (1912), Western clothing had started to influenced fashion. Men started wearing suits, trousers, etc., women wore Qipao or Western dresses. With the fall of the Qing Dynasty clothing restrictions ended, so people were able to wear what they wanted (if they had the money to afford it).
The country continued to navigate between trying to figure out how to rebuild, and conduct relations with Western powers. It was all very new to China, because prior to this China's governing system had always been an Imperial one, and now suddenly there's no Emperor, no court, no 'Mandate from Heaven'. It completely turned everyone's view of society upside down, philosophies had to be re-evaluated, there were various new schools of beliefs popping up on how best to govern, there were internal struggles for power, all while still trying to navigate relations with the West.
During this period fashion kind of went two ways. The Chinese styles simplified, lacking the intricate patterns and designs, the delicate embroideries and fabrics of the past, but there was an influx of Western fashions styles. To China, the styles were seen as new, hip, modern, because the West was associated with development, modernity, power (after all the defeats in battle previously). So you'll find photos of people wearing a mish-mash of Chinese and Western fashions.
I think it wasn't until WWII that styles turned drastically simplistic, because, you know, war. And then following that, the establishment of the PRC (People's republic of China, the China today) in 1949 the simplicity continued. I, personally, think the main reason was...WE WERE DAMN POOR, ^^;;
By 1949, China had been fighting non-stop, with outsiders and internally. WWII with Japan's invasion really took a giant bite out of China with the massacres, the human experimentations, the sheer brutality. Coming out of that, the civil war continued without pause (the civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists started prior to WWII, they paused the internal fighting to deal with Japan's invasion, but then started it back up once Japan retreated), so by 1949 when the Communists finally won the civil war, and established the PRC, the country was just exhausted. Plus, when the Nationalists retreated to Taiwan, they took a lot of money and valuable relics with them (you can still see them today on display at Taipei's Palace Museum).
So, the country was exhausted, poor, without a blueprint for how to go forward, and the last thing on people's minds was fashion. Chairman Mao pushed for everyone in the country to put their effort into working hard to develop the country. Foot-binding became forbidden (it was first banned in 1912, but people continued to do, after 1949 they banned it again, can't work with those disfigure feet), and there was a push for everyone to be educated (including women and peasants, who historically couldn't afford to go to school). Drugs were outlawed, pr*stitution outlawed, polygamy outlawed, and by outlawed I mean REALLY outlawed, as in you either stop or you get a bullet, CPC took no bullsh*t back then.
During this period, fashion got tossed to the back burner. On the one hand, families really just didn't have money to buy luscious fabrics and get all styled up, on the other, there was a pressure from society that your emphasis should be school, work, building the country, not on physical appearance. This was my mom's generation, she used to tell me when she was young, they'd get one new set of clothing at Chinese New Year, and that's it. There was a saying, "新三年，旧三年， 缝缝补补再三年", meaning "new three years, old three years, patch it up for another three years", an article of clothing is worn until it really couldn't be worn anymore, passed down between siblings.
And then between 1959-1961 there was the three year famine, people aren't thinking much about fashion while starving. And then 1966-1976 there was the Cultural Revolution where there was the 破四旧, 'destroy the old four', meaning abandon and destroy old philosophies, old culture, old customs, old traditions (旧思想、旧文化、旧风俗、旧习惯) in an attempt to jump-start the country's development (aka modernization aka westernization). This included ripping up silks and brocades, smashing jade accessories, burning old books, tearing up Confucian temples, all kinds of chaos. If you were found wearing something from the past you'd get marched through the streets and shamed.
It wasn't really until the 1980s, following the first economic reform (1979) that fashion started to return. After Deng Xiaoping initiated the first economic reform, there was a boom in economic development as internal economic policies changed, and the borders opened up to foreign investment. People started having a bit more money on hand, and with a few years of peace, fashion started becoming a thing again. But the country was still not THAT wealthy. We had food rations until the early 90s in China (as in, every month your family is permitted a certain amount of meat, rice, flour, etc., even if you had money you couldn't buy more than what was allotted).
The real fashion eruption came in the 90s, in 1992 Deng Xiaoping initiated a second round of economic reform, and now people really had more money. The country started growing at an exponential rate between the 90s and 2020 (30 years of insane economic development). With money and peaceful times to actually use the money, fashion became a thing again. But it was mostly Western fashion. People wanted to look Western, speak English, have an English name, the West was rich, everything Western was good, Western aesthetics, Western styles, etc.
Hanfu revival movement officially started in 2003 (I made a post about it here), and it gradually gained momentum. I think between 2010-2020 it really picked up speed.
I think fashion in China, for the past 100 years or so, was really pushed more by what was happening in society. There was just so much upheaval and wars, the focus just wasn't on clothing. Fashion's a luxury, it only develops when people have money and time on their hand, and China lacked both for a lot of the 1800s and 1900s. Add to that this...weird adoration for everything Western because it was considered "better" than our traditional stuff following the Century of Humiliation, it made the move towards wearing Western styles very natural. Even today, you'll find people like my dad who thinks wearing Hanfu out and about is "weird" (oh, the screaming match we had over that one -__- ).
As for everyday fashion styles in China today (especially for men)...I mean, I'm not overly in awe of it but you know, it's convenient at least (the amount of times I've tripped wearing Hanfu...I'm impressed I haven't broken a bone at this point) xD You have your jeans, dress pants, shorts, skirts, dresses, blouses, t-shirts, hoodies, all the usual you'd find in any Western city. You also have your subcultures, the gothic styles, the lolitas, etc.
In any case!! I hope that help give a bit of an overview of fashion in China over the past...150 years or so :) It's been a wild ride.
romaincrisis
snowghoul
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